This invention relates to an electric appliance for personal use such as a dry shaving apparatus, a hair cutting machine or epilator, having a housing to accommodate an electric motor, a storage cell charging circuitry, at least one rechargeable storage cell designed to be connected to the electric motor, and a connector compartment in which a connector equipped with connector pins is pivotally mounted.
An electric appliance with a connector designed to be pivoted out of a connector compartment is known from Japanese patent publication 60-39390 B2. The connector comprises a connector housing and two leaf-shaped connector pins projecting from the connector housing.
From U.S. Pat. No. 4,997,381 there is known an electric appliance with a connector designed to be pivoted out of one of the broad sides of the housing, the two leaf-shaped connector pins being pivotally arranged in the connector housing, and the two round connector pins being fastened in extension of the connector housing to the connector housing. Inside the housing of the electric appliance is a connector compartment, and in an extension of the latter are two elongate recesses to accommodate the connector with the two round connector pins projecting therefrom.
From DE 35 35 564 C2 there is known an electric appliance with a connector housing designed to be pivoted out of one of the narrow sides of the housing of the electric appliance. The two round connector pins, which are slidably arranged within the pivotal connector housing, are associated with an actuating device with a connector pin pusher, which is retractably mounted in the housing of the electric appliance. When the connector housing is pivoted out, the connector pin pusher lies in the extension of the connector housing and is pushed into the connector housing in order to push the connector pins out of the connector housing into an operating position.
From German utility model G 83 29 691 (U1) there is known an arrangement in which the connector of a rechargeable shaving apparatus is slidably positioned at one end of the shaver housing so that the two leaf-shaped connector pins fastened to a connector housing are pushed out of one of the two narrow sides of the shaver's housing by means of an actuator switch arranged in the bottom of the housing in order to make the connection to a socket-outlet of a voltage source. To ensure that the connector pins projecting out of the shaver's housing sit securely and in particular do not wobble it is necessary to provide a suitable guide, a relatively long support section for the connector housing fixedly connected to the connector pins inside the shaver's housing, and the additional arrangement of a buffer. The amount of space required by such a connector construction is therefore considerable.
Electric appliances of the type initially referred to are known to be equipped with various connectors in conformance with various standards, e.g. connectors with relatively close lying leaf-shaped connector pins for 110 volts/125 volts or round connector pins for 220 volts, 230 volts/240 volts, which compared with the leaf-shaped connector pins are spaced further apart because of the higher voltage involved. The spacing to be observed for round connector pins to conform with applicable standards makes it impossible to replace leaf-shaped connector pins with round connector pins, for example, on the known arrangement of the connector arranged to be pivoted out of a broad side of the shaver's housing according to FIG. 18 of Japanese patent publication 60-39390 (B2) on account of the relatively slim shaver housing.